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Last week, it was revealed that the news website Politico is pocketing millions of dollars from the federal government to analyze government actions. This is being compared to propaganda behind the old Iron Curtain.
The $8.2 million in payments to Politico is for an annual subscription to its “Politico Pro” feature, which says it provides everything from “in-depth analysis” and news stories to congressional bill tracking and “customized” alerts and notifications.
Remember the old Soviet-run newspaper "Pravda?"
No wonder Schumer and the Marxists in our Congress are already trying to get rid of both Trump and Musk.
Be informed, not misled.
A marketing pitch for the subscription service states, “Whether you’re a United States lobbyist, consultant, researcher, or analyst, POLITICO Pro can help you stay informed and craft winning policy.”
The federal agencies that paid the most for Politico Pro are the Department of Health and Human Services, which paid $1.37 million, followed by $1.37 million in subscriptions from the Department of the Interior, according to a Fox News story.
Fox said last week, "White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Wednesday that Politico has been receiving funds from the U.S. government that will dry up as President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cracks down on spending."
Leavitt was asked about reports that "media outlets" will be impacted by Elon Musk’s plan to cut funding for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Politico received at least $8.2 million from the U.S. government in recent years, with $44,000 of that coming from USAID, according to USAspending.gov.
"Upon coming out here to the briefing room, I was made aware of the funding from USAID to media outlets, including Politico, who I know has a seat in this room, and I can confirm that the more than $8 million taxpayer dollars that have gone to, essentially, subsidizing subscriptions to Politico on the American taxpayers dime, will no longer be happening," Leavitt said.
"The DOGE team is working on canceling those payments now," she continued. "This is a whole government effort to assure that we are going line by line when it comes to the federal government’s books."
Musk, the world’s richest man, is in charge of DOGE.
The news from the White House came after a Politico staffer expressed concern that employees receiving their recent bi-weekly direct deposits late could have been tied to Musk’s spending crackdown.
Many Politico employees typically receive direct deposit every other Tuesday, but this week, they woke up and noticed the funds didn’t hit their account. An employee told Fox News Digital that management didn’t communicate about the issue until 9 a.m. when they chalked it up as a "technical error."
According to the employee, many concerns went unaddressed as panicked Politico staffers expressed worry about paying bills and being hit with overdraft fees from their banks. Politico's management eventually insisted it was a technical error between the bank and payroll providers and that everyone would be paid by the end of the day.
According to some staffers, the employees were eventually paid, but it didn’t appear as "pending" until after 5 p.m. ET and didn’t clear until Wednesday morning.
One employee said there is internal concern that the late paychecks and the government cracking down on excess spending were somehow connected.
It wasn't just POLITICO being paid to report favorably on the Biden bunch.
While Politico did receive payments from USAID for its costly subscription service, it was hardly the government agency that had given the most money to Politico. The Department of Health and Human Services leads the way, with $1.37 million, followed by $1.35 million from the Department of the Interior, according to USAspending.gov.
The Department of Energy has given Politico $1.29 million, the Department of Agriculture has given $552,024, and the Department of Commerce has given $485,572.
Last Wednesday, as staffers were still annoyed about the late payment, Musk responded to a post on X claiming the Department of Health and Human Services spent roughly $500,000 on a Politico Pro subscription by writing, "This is odd."
This issue relates to more than the spending. It's corrupt to the core.
Joseph Vazquez, a business editor at Media Research Center, tells AFN that the payments to Politico remind him of Pravda. That is the famous communist propaganda newspaper in the former Soviet Union that pretended to be a neutral news source behind the Iron Curtain.
“If you have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on subscriptions to a news agency,” Vazquez argues, “that's not just a subscription. That's patronage.”
Indeed it is.
That accusation mirrors what others have concluded, too: The federal government's payments influenced Politico's news coverage that was already biased in favor of Democrats and liberal causes.
Takeaway
As far as the future of Politico, Vasquez says it deserves the same treatment as Pravda. "That it would forever be labeled as government propaganda," he says.
It is written in Galatians, "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
The Light is being turned on, and the deeds of the Left are being exposed.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.